2024 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Waz]

It would be hilarious if Ocon failed upward, haha. Fired from no hope Alpine and picks up a Mercedes drive

[DGP123]

It would be hilarious if Ocon failed upward, haha. Fired from no hope Alpine and picks up a Mercedes drive

Wouldn’t surprise me. The sport is all about politics & chess moves, and the majority of the drivers are the pawns. Perez gets rewarded for failure, so Ocon would be no different.

I’m still convinced Toto is delaying, delaying, delaying, in the hope Max now sees this Mercedes step forward, and he somehow makes a dramatic u-turn. Ocon is a bad choice, they don’t fancy Sainz, and KA isn’t ready. Not a good place & you can see Mercedes are struggling to know what to do.

[TeamKoolGreen]

Great weekend for George. Pole and a podium under unpredictable circumstances is happy outcome.

No, he had a good Saturday and a pretty bad Sunday. Sums up his career. Nobody was happy, the team and drivers were miserable.

Today just highlighted where Merc are with their line up. It’s an overrated line up, purely through the eyes of British fans. One is ageing, slow in Q, and making mistakes, while the other is a proven bottler, who not only makes mistakes every other race, but who’s race pace is poor. It’s why Toto wants the dream pairing of Max & KA for 26’, but doesn’t know how to make it happen.

George could've just followed Piastri home to 4th place. That's the flip side.
And to my recollection, the guys who finished in front of him made mistakes too.

Yeah. Max was the first one in the race to make a mistake and go off when he was trailing Russell. But that was early on and everyone forgot.

The Mercedes was the 3rd fastest car in the race. Both drivers pretty much got everything they could out of it.

Russell was brining his car closer to the edge all race than anyone else.

[CaribouBread]

Yeah, can’t understand why Merc are waiting. If they keep holding back the talent will likely be snapped up elsewhere.

Perhaps Mercedes is waiting for more data and proof about Antonelli before deciding whether to put him in the Williams or Mercedes seat, or neither of them.

They've put him in a F1 car a few times now so I'd say they have pretty representative data on him already. But I agree on the 'proof' part, the team might be waiting on to see how his race craft is, how he performs under pressure, can he cut through the field and so on. They have a solid idea about his pace now they need info on race performance, which can only be seen in races.

[Formula 1 fan]

I wonder what could be new upgrades for Spain race, might new sidepods, new rear wing?

[maygun]

I wonder what could be new upgrades for Spain race, might new sidepods, new rear wing?

I guess it would be close to the side-pods area. they started with a front wing, then updated the front suspension fairings, the following bit of the air is the front area of the floor and side pod inlet. Diffuser looks very undeveloped so far, and don't remember very big update on that area for a while.

[Luscion]

I wonder what could be new upgrades for Spain race, might new sidepods, new rear wing?

Apparently, a new floor is coming

Mercedes has managed to improve the stability of the car thanks to a new front wing and is preparing a new base (floor) for the Spanish Grand Prix.

If it arrives, it will probably be on both cars.

[organic]

I wonder what could be new upgrades for Spain race, might new sidepods, new rear wing?

I'm expecting a new floor for mercedes

[Chuckjr]

Signing Ocon would be bonkers. The guy is out of control on track causing havoc everywhere he’s gone. Give him a competitive car and he will become even more confident in his bully tactics. Pairing with king George would compound matters as both guys are a bit nuts in their race tactics. I think those two personalities together would feed off each other and harm the team. CS would be a much better choice imo, tho I hope he goes to Williams.

[Luscion]

Signing Ocon would be bonkers. The guy is out of control on track causing havoc everywhere he’s gone. Give him a competitive car and he will become even more confident in his bully tactics. Pairing with king George would compound matters as both guys are a bit nuts in their race tactics. I think those two personalities together would feed off each other and harm the team. CS would be a much better choice imo, tho I hope he goes to Williams.

Yea i agree, Russell and Ocon seem like they would clash very hard if paired together, seems like a really odd decision to take Ocon over Sainz if true

[organic]

Signing Ocon would be bonkers. The guy is out of control on track causing havoc everywhere he’s gone. Give him a competitive car and he will become even more confident in his bully tactics. Pairing with king George would compound matters as both guys are a bit nuts in their race tactics. I think those two personalities together would feed off each other and harm the team. CS would be a much better choice imo, tho I hope he goes to Williams.

Yea i agree, Russell and Ocon seem like they would clash very hard if paired together, seems like a really odd decision to take Ocon over Sainz if true

Merc won't offer Sainz more than a 1-year contract as a 2-year or longer contract would block Antonelli's 2026 ascension to Mercedes, potentially leading to another 'Verstappen situation' where Antonelli could look for an available top seat elsewhere.

Sainz likewise doesn't want a 1-year as that's no stability and no guarantee there will be other seats available in 2026 for him if Mercedes replace him with Antonelli. So even though it would mean choosing a worse team, it's better than potentially dropping out of the sport entirely in 12 months

What I mean to say is that Sainz just isn't an option so long as Mercedes believe fully in Antonelli.

So for 2025 their options are now Ocon or Antonelli (or some other outside option like Mick Schumacher) unless something drastic happens like Verstappen changing team.

Ocon would probably be willing to take 12 months at Mercedes as it would be his first time in a top seat and could prove his worth under the spotlight. I'm not sure he even has any other options on the grid except maybe Haas

[basti313]

Signing Ocon would be bonkers.

Yes. The only question would be "who cries first". Russel is no such quiet guy like Gasly...

BUT: Merc sees something in Ocon, he is still a Mercedes driver officially. And Ocon desperately played the Mercedes junior card. I guess he will promise anything and Toto has a history of signing his managed drivers...

Sainz likewise doesn't want a 1-year as that's no stability and no guarantee there will be other seats available in 2026 for him if Mercedes replace him with Antonelli. So even though it would mean choosing a worse team, it's better than potentially dropping out of the sport entirely in 12 months

Sorry, but that is not reasonable. He has to beat his teammate in any team. At Merc the chance for "fair treatment" or what you want to call it, is high and Russel is rated top tier. Any other option is much worse for him. If he can not beat Hulk (quali monster some times) at Audi or Albon (fast, right?) at Willi, he is finished, forever. And there is a danger in this.
I think even with a solid Nr.2 appearance at Merc, he has a better chance for the future than with a mediocre role in a backmarker team.
But I still think that Merc does not have any plan to do the switcharoo. There was a reason why Ferrari replaced Sainz with Ham. Signing Sainz can only be a plan B.

[ringo]

Why were hamiltons tyre warmers 2 degrees colder. What's really going on in this team?
Systematic handicapping?
Strange. But lets hope they sort themselves out for the next race.

[maygun]

Why were hamiltons tyre warmers 2 degrees colder. What's really going on in this team?
Systematic handicapping?
Strange. But lets hope they sort themselves out for the next race.

If Lewis going to moan like this rest of the season, Toto should find a solution to shut either him or his fans.

Nothing is perfect in any of the laps, or sessions. There would be always some minor/major problems on either side of the garage. If he cannot put the tyres to a sweet spot just because of the 1-2 degree difference, I think he should question himself also.

Using these minor stuff as excuses for his poor performance would not be very useful in Italy for him.

[Luscion]

Why were hamiltons tyre warmers 2 degrees colder. What's really going on in this team?
Systematic handicapping?
Strange. But lets hope they sort themselves out for the next race.

If Lewis going to moan like this rest of the season, Toto should find a solution to shut either him or his fans.

Nothing is perfect in any of the laps, or sessions. There would be always some minor/major problems on either side of the garage. If he cannot put the tyres to a sweet spot just because of the 1-2 degree difference, I think he should question himself also.

Using these minor stuff as excuses for his poor performance would not be very useful in Italy for him.

Him giving a reason for why his tires werent working is not him moaning. George was faster than him during quali but he was topping the times with him until his last run in Q3 where neither of them could improve on their times.

End of Q1 - Ham P3, RUS P7
End of Q2 - RUS P1, HAM P2
First runs in Q3 - RUS P1, HAM P2


He's also not using this as an excuse, he has blamed himself for his performance in Canada multiples times, both after qualifying and after the race. There can be circumstances that didnt help his performance and him also not doing the best that he can, which he admitted to, the two are not mutually exclusive.